- After a brief courtship, Louise Joyce is married to her employer, architect Mortimer Grierson, who soon tires of her and begins to see other women. One night, he comes home drunk and informs Louise that the marriage was a fraud, actually only a mock ceremony arranged by Grierson's nephew Howard Hayes, then deserts her for good. Louise becomes an artist's model, and while working she meets Paul Vivian, a protégé of her husband, and the two fall in love. Grierson discovers their relationship and tells Paul that Louise was his mistress. Soon after, Grierson is mortally wounded by one of his lovers and Howard returns from Mexico to visit his uncle's deathbed. As Grierson instructs Howard to put his affairs in order, Howard confesses that Louise's marriage is legal because in an effort to spite his uncle, he secured a real minister to perform the ceremony. After Grierson's death, Paul finds Louise and learns the true story, and together they begin a new life.
- Mrs. Joyce, a seamstress, has worked hard to provide a home for herself and her daughter, Louise. She dies only a short time before the girl's education is completed, and Louise goes to the city, where she becomes a stenographer to Mortimer Grierson, an architect. Grierson soon makes advances to Louise, but discovers that she is only to be won by marriage. Howard Hayes, Grierson's nephew, has at one time forged his uncle's name to a check, and Grierson never permits him to forget it. He now uses it as a lever to force the young man to arrange a mock marriage for him. After the marriage he sends Howard to Mexico to look after some oil interests for him. Tiring of Louise, Grierson decides it is time to end the farce of the so-called marriage. His decision is influenced by the fact that he has met another girl who attracts him. He comes home intoxicated one night and tells Louise the marriage is a farce. She is stunned, and Grierson leaves the house. Louise follows, imploring him to return and make their marriage legal. She is still protesting when he pushes her aside, gets into a waiting automobile and drives away. A policeman, believing she is annoying a wealthy man, arrests her as a disorderly woman and takes her to the station house. There Louise is thrown in among unfortunate women. Mary, a woman of the streets, fearing the girl may fall into deeper abysses through desperation, tells the story of her own life and urges Louise to give her heart to no one, but to make men pay, to take all from them, but to give them nothing. In the morning Louise is arraigned, but discharged as a "first offender." Taking Mary's advice, she becomes known as the "ice maiden." She becomes a model for Paul Vivian, an artist, recently returned from Paris. He is a protégé of Grierson, who has paid for his education. He falls in love with Louise, and she, despite her resolve, falls in love with him, but she feels that she is unworthy of him. When Grierson tells Paul she has been an outcast, she does not deny it. Paul threatens to kill the man who has ruined her life, but when Grierson says, "I am the man," he relents. Louise says nothing of the marriage, simply telling Paul that she has a record as a disorderly woman. Grierson goes away on a trip. Already he has tired of "the other woman," a new face having attracted him, and on their return he tells her he is through with her. In a jealous rage she shoots him. Mortally wounded, Grierson says he has shot himself. His physician tells him to put his affairs in order as death is imminent, and he plans to make provision for Louise. Howard returns from Mexico and confesses that the marriage to Louise was genuine, since in a spirit of revenge against his uncle he secured a real minister to perform the ceremony. After Grierson's death Paul finds Louise. He learns all and they begin life anew.
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